As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 appended hereto, a conventional connector has a locking member 2 formed on its upper face for carrying out fitting and locking with a corresponding connector (not shown). This locking member 2 comprises a locking arm 3 that is capable of bending, and controlling walls 4 located on both sides thereof. The locking arm 3 is supported at one end and is capable of bending in an up-down direction. When male and female connectors (the connector 7 and the corresponding connector, which is not shown) are fitted correctly, the locking arm 3 fits with a portion of the corresponding connector and reaches a latched state. The free end of the locking arm 3 has a releasing member 5. When this is pressed down and the locking arm 3 thereby bent down, the locking arm 3 is released from the latched state to permit the connectors to be separated.
The controlling walls 4, formed so as to fit both sides of the locking arm 3 snugly, prevent electric wires from being trapped beneath the locking arm 3, and prevent the latch from being released in the event that the upper side of the connector is inadvertently pressed.
In the conventional case, in order to prevent the locking arm 3 from excessive bending when it is operated beyond its elastic limit, stopper members 6 project from the inner faces of both the controlling walls 4. When the locking arm 3 is bent through a given angle (in FIG. 5, this is the position shown by solid lines), the lower face of the releasing member 5 makes contact with the stopper member 6, making it impossible for the locking arm 3 to bend any further.
As described above, the controlling walls serve the important functions of preventing an external object from being trapped and of preventing the arm from being inadvertently operated from above. For this reason, when the width of the locking member is set, apart from the width of the locking arm, that of the controlling walls must also be taken into account. Since it is desirable for the connector to be miniaturized, the width of the locking member is also set to be as narrow as possible, but when operability is taken into consideration, it is hard to reduce the width of the locking arm beyond its current width. The spacing between the walls 4 must be sufficient for a finger of an operator to interpose therebetween. Consequently, in the current configuration the minimum dimension is the sum of the width of the releasing member 5 and that of the controlling walls 4. This is one of the factors that interfere with the miniaturization of the connector.
The present invention has been developed after taking into consideration this problem and aims at presenting a connector which can be miniaturized.